5 Greeks Elected into Victoria’s Parliament

Greek presence will be increased in Victoria’s Parliament following Saturday’s state elections. Eleven Greek candidates took part.  Five were re-elected.
Specifically:
*Liberal MP, Nikos Kotsiras (photo), easily retained his seat in Bulleen, by increasing the percentage of his votes by 7.1%. After the distribution of second preferences, Kotsiras has gathered 64.6% of the votes.
If the Liberal National Coalition wins by majority, it is certain that the leader of the party will also hand down a Ministry to Kotsiras.  Until now he has been serving as shadow Minister for Multicultural Affairs in opposition.
Labor MP and former State Minister Giannis Pantazopoulos easily held on to his seat in Dandenong.  He has held this since 1992.   There was a 4.7% shift against him in this election. Along with second preferences,  Pantazopoulos has earned 64% of the votes.
Jenny Mikakou was also re-elected for Upper Parliament, retaining her Northern Metropolitan Region seat.
A new face in the Upper Parliament in the South Eastern Metropolitan Region is Lee Tarlamis, under the Labor Party.
Another Greek candidate elected for the first time is Andreas Katos of the Liberal Party.  He earned the seat of South Barwon and increased the percentage of his party by 5%.  He gained a rate of 53.7% after second preferences.
Theo Zografos, Liberal Party candidate for Oakley was unlucky. In an area inhabited by thousands of Greeks, Zografos impressively increased the percentage of his party by 7% and won 40% of the votes.  He marginally lost the seat by 1% by Labor MP Anne Barker.
For the same seat, Greek candidate of Family First party George Rigas, received only 1.3 % of the votes.

Other Greek candidates’ results who were not elected are:
Meni Christofakis for the Australian Greens in the marginal labor seat of Prahran, received 18.5% of the votes.
Labor candidate Nikos Voulanas received 20.1% of the votes in Malvern.
Sotiria Strati of the “Sex Party” earned 3.6% in Bayswater.  Another Greek candidate from the same party, Jo Mavrikou received 2.3% in Hastings.
The chances of a hung parliament seemed less likely by Sunday evening as the Coalition edged closer to forming the government in Victoria.
The seat of Bentleigh is all that Ted Baillieu needs to secure the magic number of 45 seats and claim victory over the state’s longest running Labor government.  It has been led since 2007 by John Brumby.
A dramatic swing against Labor has cut down long-standing MPs with the election results expected to see as many as 13 seats lost.
Melbourne’s outer suburbs, particularly those taking the brunt of Victoria’s population growth punished Labor last night.
The seats lost include: Mt Waverley, Gembrook, Carrum, Seymour, South Barwon, Forest Hill, Burwood, Prahran and Mitcham.
In the tightest election since 1999 which saw Jeff Kennett ousted from power, there was a clear swing away from the Government to the Coalition — mainly in Melbourne’s east and south-eastern suburbs.
Former Geelong Mayor Michael Crutchfield lost the Geelong seat of South Barwon to the Coalition.
The loss ripped through Labor’s true believers in Geelong, as Michael Crutchfield, who held South Barwon by a lean 2.3%, made way for Greek- Australian Liberal Andrew Katos.

Labor’s losses in the frontbench include Tony Robinson, Consumer Affairs Minister and Maxine Morand, Children and Early Childhood Development Minister.
Michael Gidley removed Morand in Mt. Waverley and in Gembrook.  The Liberals won with a 6.9% swing against Labor’s Tammy Lobato.
In Forest Hill, Labor’s Kristie Marshall all but conceded to the Liberal’s Neil Angus Saturday night after a strange self-imposed media gag earlier in the day.

The biggest swing against Labor was in Carrum, in metropolitan Melbourne. It brought the seat to the Liberal’s Donna Bauer with a massive 10.3% swing against Jenny Lindell.
The Brumby Government’s response to the 2009 devastating bush fires reaped its own reward with a 10.1% swing against Labor’s Ben Hardman in the seat of Seymour; an electorate covering areas such as Marysville and Kinglake.  The seat went to Cindy McLeish.
Long-term sitting Labor MP Bob Stensholt in Burwood lost his seat to the Liberal’s Graham Watt with another extraordinary 10.2% swing.

In Prahran things could not have been worse for Labor with Clem Newton-Brown taking the seat from Tony Lupton with almost 55% of the two-party preferred vote.
Any expectation a Labor government may have of securing an independent were dashed when the state’s only independent Craig Ingram accepted defeat ahead of a looming avalanche win by the National’s Tim Bell in the state’s east.
Labor also lost crucial support in the blue-collar belt of Frankston.  This reflects the changing demography of the area, with a 6.8% swing to Geoff Shaw ousting Labor’s Alistain Harkness.
The ALP also failed to hold Mordialloc with Janice Munt losing out to Lorraine Wreford.
Contrary to media expectations the Greens failed to win a single lower house seat.
Now the outcome of Bentleigh will decide the tense contest. The Liberals were ahead with 51.1% of the two-party preferred vote.
The election results will also be complicated by a mass of 768,000 votes lodged before yesterday through postal and pre-poll votes.